Changing Currents: A Tribal Vision for Water

We heard early on in this work that storytelling and sharing Native perspectives and experiences of water would be central to building a collective vision. Our latest video features the powerful voices of our youth leaders, The Klamath Tribes’ Chairman Gentry, and Changing Currents co-founder, Direlle Calica.

Changing Currents: Tribal Water Summits 2020-2021

Changing Current Water summits are inter-tribal convenings designed to bring together staff and leadership from Northwest Tribes and Native communities to foster dialogue & collaboration around common water interests and work toward a shared agenda.

Changing Currents: 2017 Tribal Water Summit--Oregon

Tribal leaders share how doing what’s right for treaty resources benefits the whole region, and emphasize the importance of working together with Tribal governments, state and local governments to restore our water for the common good.

Jesse Beers, Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians

Jesse Beers talks about what it means to be able to express your cultural ideals in how land - and water - should be managed. “Our culture developed in this place. … How to properly steward a place - you learn that from living for generations in that place.”

Coquille Indian Tribe First Foods: Clams

This is a story of the Coquille People’s first foods and shellfish gathering in South Slough. This video is owned and produced by the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon.

Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge - Marsh Restoration

On October 1, 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, Coquille Indian Tribe, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Federal Highway Administration, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and other partners celebrated the completion of the Ni-les'tun Tidal Marsh Restoration Project on Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge.

Common Ground » Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs

Tribes work with agricultural neighbors on water resources, restoration, and support shared interests for local communities.

The Timeless Deschutes River

Learn how The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and PGE are working to restore wild fish runs above the Pelton Round Butte Dam.

Recolonizing The Elwha

Ten years ago, the world's largest dam removal began on the Elwha River, allowing salmon to recolonize their lost habitat. This is the story of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe's connection to that river and the hatchery that kept those salmon runs alive.

Oregon Lottery - Meacham Creek

The River Vision for the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation states that a healthy river is capable of providing First Foods that sustain the continuity of the Tribe’s culture. Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and Oregon Lottery showcase the importance of restoring Meacham Creek to the Umatilla Tribe’s vision for future generations.

Lyle Falls Fishway Helps Klickitat River Salmon Steelhead

The Yakama Nation improves an old fish ladder on the wild and scenic Klickitat River. The fishway will help salmon and steelhead maneuver around Lyle Falls on the Klickitat. Besides helping fish migrate up the river, the new ladder will also help tribal members trap more wild stocks and infuse their genes into hatchery fish making them stronger.

Cwaam Ceremony

Since restoration in 1986, The Klamath Tribes have been working to bring back the c’waam - suckerfish. Key to this journey was reinstating the seasonal ceremonies to thank the creator for our fish. “Our prayers aren’t just for us. They’re for the whole world, for mankind. That little fish, in that water, is an ecosystem indicator.”

Warm Springs | Mill Creek Restoration Project

The Mill Creek tributary of the Warm Springs River is one of the last strongholds for cold water salmonids in the Deschutes Basin. “This is a Native way. This is what it’s all about - nurturing and taking care of our fish habitat and the fish themselves, and all the environment which surrounds them.”

Náimuni: Connecting Oxbow Conservation Area | Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs

The inspiring story of one of the biggest salmon habitat restoration projects in Oregon’s history. Leadership by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to restore this section of the Middle Fork John Day River increased chinook spawning by 12% on this property.

BPA Turns 75, Part Three, Voices Heard

During Bonneville's 75 year history, affordable and reliable electric hydropower brought light and life to rural communities. But many Native Americans lost a cultural way of life. This is the story of the fish, and how collaboration between the Bonneville Power Administration and Northwest tribes has instilled a sense of hope as the fish return to the Columbia Basin.

Wild Release: Colville Confederated Tribes' Selective Salmon Harvest

For the last three years, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation have been learning a new, more selective way to fish. Purse seining is a live capture method of fishing that allows the tribe to catch and keep hatchery fish for distribution to their tribal members and let the wild fish go free unharmed. This year the tribe bought their first purse seiner, the Dream Catcher.

Restored Wetland Brings Wapato Back to the Yakama Nation

Members of the Yakama Nation are again harvesting wapato root, a traditional, egg-shaped potato-like tribal food that had been absent from their culture for 70 years. The wapato root disappeared from Yakama's land due to agricultural diversion. In the 1990s, BPA helped the Tribe purchase a 440-acres parcel of land on Toppenish Creek as a wetland restoration project for fish and wildlife. The restored habitat has brought back the wapato. The video was produced and narrated by David Wilson.

Colville Tribes celebrate opening of Chief Joseph Hatchery

The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation dedicated their new, state-of-the-art hatchery on June 20 downstream of Chief Joseph Dam near Bridgeport, Wash. The hatchery will release up to 2.9 million spring and summer chinook into the Columbia and Snake rivers. The hatchery will boost the availability of salmon for the Tribe as well as sports fishing. It will help to rebuild naturally spawning salmon runs in areas impacted by the construction and operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System.

Kootenai River White Sturgeon Recovery

The Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, with support from the Bonneville Power Administration and others, is working to restore endangered white sturgeon populations in Idaho's Kootenai River. Phase one of the Kootenai River Restoration Plan was completed in the fall of 2011. Additional habitat enhancement projects are scheduled for fall 2012.

Restoring the Umatilla River

This video is owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The inspiring story of one of the biggest salmon habitat restoration projects in Oregon’s history. This is the story of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservations restoration work.

Middle Fork John Day River Wild Salmon Habitat Restoration

Scientists from the Bonneville Power Administration and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs work to restore an area of the river degraded by mining. The three phase project has been paid in large part by BPA through the Columbia Basin Fish Accords. The video was produced and narrated by David Wilson.

Kootenai White Sturgeon: Agencies Collaborate to Save North America's Largest Freshwater Fish

Armed with passion, science and urgency, state and federal agencies and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho are working to recover the endangered white sturgeon. The white sturgeon, third largest of the prehistoric species and known to reach nearly 1,800 pounds and 20 feet long, is on a path to extinction in the Kootenai River unless recovery efforts gain momentum. The partners hope that improvements to habitat and river conditions will encourage successful spawning.

Coast Salish: Tribal Canoe Journey for Troubled Sea, Part 1

The USGS and the Coast Salish Tribal Nation have partnered during the annual Tribal Canoe Journey to study and help improve resources of the Salish Sea.

Tribal Canoe Journey for Troubled Sea: Part 2

The USGS and the Coast Salish Tribal Nation have partnered during the annual Tribal Canoe Journey to study and help improve resources of the Salish Sea. Part 2 of 2.

Currently The Case of the Missing Video (This video will be back soon) — The Case of the Missing Canoes

Shirod Younker explores the Coquille Indian Tribe’s canoe customs and designs and the return of canoe culture among Northwest Tribes. “We’re all metaphorically in one canoe heading in the same direction and perpetuating some of the traditional customs that we used to have.”